1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for sound signal classification, and more particularly to selective sampling techniques for sound signal classification.
2. Discussion of Background Art
Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems are an increasingly important tool for providing information and services in a more cost efficient manner. IVR systems are typically hosted by a server, which includes an array of Digital Signal Processors (DSPs), and enable speakers to interact with corporate databases and services over a telephone using a combination of voice utterances and telephone button presses. IVR systems are particularly cost effective when a large number of speakers require data or services that are very similar in nature and thus can be handled in an automated manner. A speaker using an IVR system may or may not eventually be connected to a live operator, depending upon the complexity of the speaker's request.
Due to the significant cost savings often realized with IVR systems, there is a growing demand for such systems to provide more functionality and a richer speaker experience. Toward those ends, IVR systems responsive to a speaker's age range, gender, language, accent, dialect, identity, and so on are desirable. Such functionality often is possible when a speaker's vocal utterance (a.k.a. speech or sound signal) is first digitized and then analyzed, so that a set of meta-data (e.g. the speaker's age range, and so on) can be extracted from the utterance, without requiring the speaker to provide such information directly to the IVR system.
While such meta-data extraction has a potential to improve speech recognition of the speaker and enable some novel IVR applications directed to a speaker's particular characteristics, current techniques for meta-data extraction are very computationally intensive and have further burdened IVR system servers and support hardware to the point of creating speed bottlenecks even during normal use.
What is needed is a system and method for sound signal classification that overcomes the problems of the prior art.